‘Depraved monster’ raped teen and filmed females using secret camera

A ‘depraved monster’ has been jailed for more than 20 years after raping a teenager and secretly filming other young women.

John Curtis, 41, filmed himself raping and sexually assaulting the teenager and installed a hidden camera in his bathroom to record unsuspecting female visitors.

Curtis, formerly of Onchan, was also found with more than 15,000 indecent images, including serious category A material. Among the videos was footage showing the rape of a baby, who was unknown to Curtis and had been filmed elsewhere in the world.

Curtis appeared at the Court of General Gaol Delivery for sentencing on Friday, having previously admitted 33 sexual offences, including rape, attempted rape, sexual assault, sexual touching, taking indecent images and possessing indecent images.

Prosecuting advocate Sara-Jayne Dodge told the court that on May 1, the teenager had returned to a property after drinking alcohol and fallen asleep.

She awoke feeling pressure in an intimate area and saw Curtis crawling away. Confused, she went back to sleep.

She later woke again, experiencing the same sensation, and saw Curtis naked in her room.

After calling a friend, the teenager contacted police. Officers attended and attempted to arrest Curtis, but he resisted and had to be taken to the floor.

Police seized a bag he was carrying, which contained several electronic devices, including a small camera.

The teenager underwent a medical examination the following day, which identified semen belonging to Curtis.

Officers examined Curtis’s phone and recovered footage he had recorded of the rape and sexual assault.

The footage showed he had not used contraception and that the teenager did not appear to be conscious during the offences.

Further examination uncovered videos of female visitors using the bathroom at Curtis’s home. Six women were identified from the recordings.

Investigators established that the hidden camera had been concealed inside a wicker basket and that Curtis had begun recording victims in May 2024.

Around 15,000 indecent photographs and videos were found on his electronic devices, including phones and a portable hard drive.

These included almost 3,000 category A photographs and nearly 2,000 category A videos, the most serious classification.

Although Curtis had created some of the material, most had been downloaded from the internet.

When interviewed by police, Curtis answered ‘no comment’.

In a victim impact statement read to the court by Ms Dodge, the teenager described the devastating effect of his crimes.

She said: ‘I felt completely violated. I have never been so terrified in my life. He stripped me of my dignity.

‘Afterwards, I struggled to sleep and I still do. My confidence was at an all time low and I was having panic attacks.

‘Every person in my life has been impacted and every aspect of my life has changed.

‘I don’t want to be known as the girl who was raped but I am hopeful for the future and I don’t want him to have a hold over my life forever.

‘It will take a lot of time to process everything that has happened.’

The court also heard victim impact statements from women who had been secretly filmed.

One said: ‘I feel incredibly fragile, broken and insecure. I am plagued by guilt and anger. I feel such mental anguish, sometimes I want to escape my own skin’

Another victim said: ‘I feel disgusted this has happened and that he [Curtis] kept the videos.

‘Every time I am in a public toilet or in someone else’s bathroom I feel worried and scared someone is watching me.’

Other victims described feeling anxious when using public toilets, while one called Curtis an ‘evil and dangerous’ person.

Another said she ‘felt sick’ and was worried about what he had done with the recordings, adding: ‘It has made me feel upset and vulnerable.’

Mitigating advocate Stephen Wood acknowledged there was little he could say in his client’s defence.

However, he highlighted Curtis’s guilty pleas at the earliest opportunity and his previous good character.

Mr Wood said: ‘My client does not know why he committed these offences. I can only say he recognises right-minded people do not behave in this way and he is committed to working with psychologists in the prison to gain insight into why he behaved in this horrible way.’

Deemster Graeme Cook condemned Curtis’s offending in the strongest terms.

He told him: ‘This is such extreme sexual depravity. One victim described you as a monster and I entirely agree with that.

‘Your offending is beyond belief and you have traumatised six young ladies and you have altered the course of one of these young ladies’ lives.’

Curtis received a sentence of 13 years and four months for rape, two years for sexual touching, two years and eight months for recording intimate images and two years and eight months for possessing indecent images.

Deemster Cook considered the totality of the offending, ordering consecutive sentences for different groups of offences, with the remaining sentences running concurrently.

In total, Curtis was jailed for 20 years and eight months.

Curtis will also be subject to a further ten years on licence after his release to protect the public.

He will remain on the sex offenders’ register for life, while a Sexual Harm Prevention Order will be issued in due course.

Following the sentencing, Detective Sergeant Kelly Wilkinson, the officer in charge of the investigation, praised those involved in bringing Curtis to justice.

She said: ‘I would like to recognise the professionalism and commitment of everyone involved in bringing this case to court.

‘In particular, I want to acknowledge the officers who responded to the initial report. They acted swiftly and professionally, securing significant evidence and arresting Curtis. Their actions at that early stage made an important contribution to the investigation that followed.

‘Today’s sentence should send a clear message that sexual offending, and violence against women and girls, will not be tolerated.

‘We remain committed to protecting vulnerable people, pursuing those who cause them harm, and ensuring victims are listened to, supported and treated with dignity throughout the criminal justice process.’